Living in the Shadows
by CharlotteBlackwood
Summary: Part of my six-gen series! This one comes after Promised Child and is in the post-war era! McKenna Wood had grown up listening to the stories of the triumphs of her mother and Harry, but as she finds herself going to Hogwarts the world continues to change around her. Secrets long buried come back to the fore, and the promise of pain continues down the generations. FW2/OC, GW/OC


**A/N: Hello! This is the fifth generation in my six-generation Harry Potter Series, otherwise known as My Baby. This story is Harry's Children's generation. The series starts with **_**Man's Greatest Treasure**_**, followed by **_**Don't Let Go of Me**_**, which is followed by a oneshot called **_**Some Other Beginning's End**_**, then **_**It's For You**_**, then the Charlotte Series, which is currently not posted, and this will be followed by another story based on the children of McKenna and her peers. One of my Remus Smutshots also fits into this universe, called **_**Fatal Optimism**_**, and my oneshot **_**Someone Like You**_** is also part of this universe. Enjoy exploring it!**

** -C**

McKenna Wood woke up on a particularly cool summer morning and turned over in her bed, only to discover that she was not in her bed as she ran into her friend, Roxanne Weasley. She sat up. They were spending the month at the Burrow, the home of Roxanne's grandparents. It was a tradition. In the room with her were all Roxanne's cousins, whom McKenna also considered cousins, though in truth they weren't actually related. They were all very close friends.

Roxanne was a little older than McKenna, and there was Victoire, who was Roxanne's cousin. She was about five years older than them. Rose Weasley, their other cousin, was laying on the floor next to Molly Weasley, yet another cousin. Rose was a year younger than McKenna, and Molly was about a year younger than Victoire. Molly's sister, Lucy, who was only two years older than McKenna was nodding off in a desk chair, since she could sleep nearly anywhere. Dominique, who was Victoire's little sister, was the same age as Molly, and she was curled up on the corner of the very large bed on which her sister was snoozing on the other side of Roxanne. The youngest female cousin, Lily Potter, who was three years younger than McKenna, was already awake, sitting with her back to the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest. She saw McKenna sit up and smiled cheerily at her, waving silently.

As usual, they were up before the other girls, so they snuck out of the room to go downstairs, where the boys were sure to be awake and ready to have fun.

Right on schedule, Lily and McKenna wandered into the sitting room to find all Lily's male cousins, and the girls' brothers, already lounging about. There were Lily's older brothers, James and Albus, and the various Weasleys: Fred, Hugo, Louis. McKenna's younger brothers, Fred and George, were also up. And just as the girls sat down on the table, since the typical seating implements were all spoken for, in walked Teddy Lupin, the amazingly cool godson of Lily's father and McKenna's mother. Just as McKenna felt as though the Weasleys and Potters were her cousins, she thought of Teddy as a brother. He was seven years older than her, but they would rough around and talk and play as though they were equals, which was very much appreciated by McKenna.

"Good morning, boys," he said, pausing. "Well, and Lily and Mickey, of course."

Teddy was the only person she let call her Mickey. For some reason, it didn't seem quite so boyish when he said it. Of course, that was silly; it was exactly the same no matter who said it, but he was allowed anyway.

"Good morning, Teddy. Have Grandma and Grandpa Weasley got anything grand planned for the final day together?"

Teddy laughed. "Well, you'd have to ask them; they don't tell me their plans most of the time. Planning grand things takes a lot of work, when you've got so many young people on your hands, not to mention your parents will be around at some point."

McKenna frowned at James for asking. He always asked those sorts of things, and while he was her best friend, she couldn't help but wish that sometimes he'd just keep his mouth shut and not expect so much from others. But it was who he was, so that was that.

After all, there _were_ a lot of them. Between each of the six groups of children, there were fifteen of them, and Teddy was always grouped in, even though he was older, and not actually related. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley always treated Teddy and the Wood children as their own grandchildren, regardless, and McKenna was not about to complain. This meant she had two sets of grandparents, since her mother's parents were dead, and it also gave her more reason to feel a part of the Weasley family, which was a wonderful family, the sort one simply wanted to be a part of.

Just then, the first parent walked it: George Weasley, father of Fred and Roxanne, and probably one of the coolest parents ever.

"Uncle George!"

He smiled and waved at his admirers. He was famous throughout Britain, but young people were his primary fan group, and his children, nieces, and nephews were truly his biggest fans.

"I see Freddie. Is my lazy girl up yet?"

McKenna and Lily shook their heads, grinning. Roxanne was a very beautiful girl, with bronze skin and blue eyes, and sort of deep red hair. She was a very rare beauty, and had learned from her cousin Victoire and Aunt Fleur all the ways to take full advantage of that beauty, like keeping people waiting and sleeping whenever she felt like it. Nobody truly minded, since she was always on time when she needed to be or her mother would have grounded her for life, but it was a constant joke amongst the family.

"Uncle George, can you tell us stories today, before all the other adults get here?"

McKenna nodded vigorously. They all loved Uncle George's stories, of course, but her brother Fred was the only one who ever dared ask for them. Everyone else was too sensitive about George's feelings to ask, as they could see how telling stories from the War and the days before it sometimes caused their uncle tremendous pain that he hid very well. That, and sometimes their parents got angry with George for the things he said or only hinted at, even if nobody but Teddy and McKenna ever really understood his hints, or cared enough to work them out.

Uncle George smiled and replied, "Well, one of you is gonna have to budge up and give me a place to sit, and somebody'll have to wake up the rest of the girls."

The words had barely left his mouth when Fred Wood had kicked Albus off the stool and Lily sprinted back upstairs to gather her cousins. In a matter of minutes, sixteen anxious listeners were crowded into the sitting room around Uncle George, who had puffed himself up importantly on a stool and grabbed a random book off the shelf, as he always did, to make it look as though he was reading the story, instead of just telling it off the top of his head. He said it always made all those staring eyes a little less awkward.

He tried to pick the silliest books to "read" out of, and this time it was some old book on how best to deal with various types of stains. Uncle George leafed through it casually as the girls woke up a bit and Victoire gave Teddy a quick peck before leaving for the kitchen to make herself some tea, after which she would go back upstairs. Victoire had no interest in the stories from the War, especially because they always made Teddy so sad.

"All right, you maniacs, what do you want to hear about today?"

Lily piped up from his ankles, where she always sat, which must have made her neck hurt horribly, staring straight up at him. "Tell us about our parents, all of them, and how they got married!"

Fred Weasley groaned, "Lils, that's sissy stuff! I want to hear about the time you won the Quidditch Cup, dad!"

Uncle George shook his head. "Sorry, Freddie, I told that story last. Besides, Lily asked first, and very politely, I might add." He smiled down at his niece. "All right, I'll tell about the couples and all that gushy stuff, if you would like." He cleared his throat impressively. "Once upon a time there was a very large family, with the distinctive surname of Weasley." He started most of his stories this way, and made nearly all of them about him, even when they were actually more about Uncle Harry, Aunt Hermione, or even McKenna's mother, whom the others called Aunt Charlotte.

"The oldest son was named William, but everybody called him Bill because it sounded way cooler. He went through school and was Head Boy and all that good stuff, but then he left school and did way more interesting things. He worked for Gringotts as a curse-breaker, and helped them get treasurers from tombs in Egypt. He had a fabulous, glamorous life, and then he met this French girl named Fleur who he fell in love with rather quickly. They married just before the Ministry fell during the war, and their wedding was actually crashed by the Death Eaters, which was sort of exciting. Anyway, they lived out in Shell Cottage, holed up during the war, and fought in the final battle. Not long after, they decided to settle down a bit, and he just worked at the bank as a normal banker, and they had three kids. Then end."

The girls giggled a bit at this silly, glossy discussion of Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur. Whenever Aunt Fleur told about it, there was less emphasis on the War and a bit more emphasis on the glamour and romance of their courtship and marriage. However, this was a story they had all heard many times before, as Aunt Fleur loved to talk about it.

"The second son, Charles, better known as Charlie, was probably the smartest chap of the bunch, as he married his work instead of a person, and has devoted his entire life to working with dragons in Romania. Could've played for England, though, he was a damn good Quidditch player.

"The third son, Percy, was a bit of a late bloomer. He met this girl in school, named Penelope, but she was a bit to cleaver to get tied to a bloke like him. Anyway, he went and fell in love with his job at the Ministry and was a right prat about things for years, breaking his mother's heart. He didn't come around until the final battle, where he came and made quick amends and fought for the light. After that, he lightened up a bit and married this Scottish gal named Audrey who was quite high up in the Ministry, but he swears that's not why he started dating her, but even she jokes about it."

The audience laughed, and Uncle George nodded approvingly. McKenna loved all the stories about Uncle Percy as a child; he was incredibly foolish about rules. Everyone knows Weasleys break rules, but he was a late bloomer, as Uncle George had said.

"The fourth son was George," and he gave a little bow, "who was the most dashingly handsome and wonderful of the lot. He made friends with a sassy girl named Angelina at school and they remained friends through the War. Several years after the mess was all over, everyone decided it was time for George to marry Angelina and told him so, so he did. And he was pretty happy with the decision, because she was a really fun wife and the kids they ended up with weren't so bad, either."

Here everyone laughed, even Fred and Roxanne, mostly at the nonchalant way he regarded their mother, whom they all knew he loved in a sweet, childish sort of way.

"The youngest son was Ronald, who married his best friend, Harry." He frowned down at the book. "No, that's not right at all; he married his best friend Hermione." They all laughed and he smiled over at them. "Silly book, you know the mistakes they make in these things. Anyway, they were friends at school and they started dating sometime when they were sixteen or so and they married a little bit after the War. And he's lucky, too, because she's way smarter and prettier than Ron ever deserved."

Rosie nodded in agreement, but others merely giggled and laughed.

"And then the daughter, the only daughter, may have been the luckiest of all. She's actually the one who married Ron's best friend Harry. She actually was a fan girl, back when she was a kid. After all, Harry Potter has always been famous. But she grew out of it, and they ended up falling in love when she was fifteen or so, and they didn't date during the war, because he was afraid of making her a target, although she was pretty capable of doing that herself." They laughed in agreement. "After the War, they settled in to their careers, waited for things to calm down, and then got married. And then she made her only really big mistake: she gave up an illustrious career as a Quidditch star to raise three measly brats. I mean, she writes for the _Prophet_, but still…"

They all laughed uproariously at this, and when they calmed down, he shut the book. "And they all lived happily ever after. Until the kids got old enough to be rebellious, and then all happiness ended."

Albus spoke up from his spot on the corner of a rug. "You forgot Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Oliver!"

George laughed. "Well, they're not really Weasleys, Al. All right, I'll tell their story too. Charlotte Cromwell and Oliver Wood were friends at school, but they never dated. Charlotte married late. They raised three wonderful kids, if I do say so myself, and Charlotte would kill me if I told any more of the story than that."

Teddy frowned. "Married late?"

George closed the book again and shrugged. "She was the last to marry of the bunch, yeah, but only by a year or so, if I remember right."

"Why? Everyone else seemed to get married right away. Weren't she and Uncle Oliver in love?"

George was frowning now. "Not until later, or at least, she wasn't in love with him until later. I think Oliver loved her all along, just didn't notice it because of his love of Quidditch."

McKenna was surprised at this. She had never actually heard about how her parents got together. "They how did then end up married? Why didn't she love him at first?"

George looked at her sadly. "Because she was in love with someone else. But he died in the War. And when you lose someone like that it takes a little while to love again."

The laughter from the previous accounts had vanished. The room was now as eerily silent as possible, considering the sixteen bodies inhabiting it were never silent when gathered together. McKenna wondered what had happened, what the story was behind her mother's lost love.

"Who was he?" asked her brother, Fred.

Uncle George just stared down at the book in his hands and shook his head for a moment before speaking. "That's something you'll have to ask your mother. I've already said too much."

They all sat in the awkward silence that followed, not really looking at each other and contemplating to themselves what Uncle George meant. They all had noticed, of course, that he had also neglected to talk of the romantic life of his own twin, Fred, who had died in the War, but nobody asked about this because there were a couple of reasons he may have done this. It may have been that Uncle George simply thought the subject was too painful, or it may have been that Uncle Fred was like Uncle Charlie and never had a romantic life. Either way, nobody was about to inquire about it.

After they had sat sufficiently long in the silence, with Teddy exchanging a variety of glances with McKenna, both clearly curious about her mother's past, Mrs. Weasley came into the room hollering that they were all letting breakfast get cold and that they had better hurry if they wanted to eat at all before lunch. Naturally, they were all starving, as young children and Weasleys in general often are, so they filed noisily into the kitchen and helped themselves to eggs, sausage, toast, and potatoes. Once they had cleared the table they all scattered in their various directions. Uncle George suggested that they go outside and run around for a bit.

Of course, they knew when the parents had arrived they would play a game of Quidditch, without real balls, of course. There was too much risk that a Snitch or Bludger would wander into the village, and that would be bad. So they just had Chasers and Keepers and left the rest out of it.

When they were at McKenna's house, which they usually did for about a week early in the summer, they could use all the balls, since they truly lived so far from Muggles and wizards alike that there was no problem in a ball wandered off. Then, McKenna got to test her skills as a Keeper against her father, who played for England. It wouldn't be a fair match-up at all, except James was on her dad's team and played opposite his father as Seeker, who could have played for England if he had wanted. So she was usually on the winning side, even though she didn't save as many goals as her dad. The only ones he ever missed were her mother, who also could have played for England, and those he claimed to miss for good sport, though nobody really believed him.

At the Burrow, they divided into the same teams, just with everyone but the Keepers playing Chaser. This meant McKenna was trying to block goals against Aunt Angelina, Aunt Ginny, Albus, Uncle George, her cousin Fred, and James. Her father was trying to block Rose, Uncle Ron, her mother, Roxanne, her brother Fred, and Uncle Harry. Sometimes, when Uncle Harry was at work, Lily took his place, and whenever any of the Beaters couldn't play, her brother George stepped in. Teddy would play sometimes, too, when he wasn't busy with Auror training. He'd just play wherever there was a spot, so usually for McKenna's mother, as a Chaser.

However, at this point in time, the only adult player present was Uncle George, which was hardly enough to play a rousing game of Quidditch, especially since he was a horrible Keeper, which would have made things incredibly unfair. So instead of attempting to play Quidditch, McKenna, James, Fred Weasley, Teddy, and Roxanne went outside with Uncle George and talked about Hogwarts, where James, Roxanne and McKenna would be starting in the fall.

Fred was going into his fifth year, along with his cousins Molly and Dominique. Molly was going to be a Prefect, like her father. She was a bit too proud of it, so nobody talked about it unless she was around, and then they simply teased her for being so proud of it, when so many Weasleys had been Prefects. After all, Uncle Bill, Uncle Percy, Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, and Teddy had all been Prefects already, and Teddy and Uncle Bill were even Head Boy, so it was silly of her to be so proud of something they were all expecting anyway, and Fred and James never missed an opportunity to say so.

They had a more distant cousin, Reilly Weasley, who was going to be a fourth year, and his twin brother Koby. They were from a different branch of the Weasley tree, so they didn't really talk much, but they got questions all the time about how they were all related, so they were worth noting briefly, anyway. Victoire was in her sixth year, Lucy in her third, and Louis in his second, so they were joining a large portion of their extended family at school, and they were all very excited about it.

"Uncle George, tell us about the Forbidden Forest again?"

And so Uncle George went into a long story about Errol, the family owl who had long since passed away and had become a hero in the bedtime stories they had all grown up with, ever since Uncle Ron told the first story about Errol the special agent. This particular story told of Errol teaming up with a wild Ford Anglia that lived in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts and involved saving the students and nearby town of Hogsmeade from a full-scale attack from a pack of Acromatulas living deep within the forest. It was a fan favorite, and so Uncle George and Uncle Ron found themselves telling it over and over again, but they didn't really mind. Stories about Errol were fun. McKenna suspected that they loved to tell them so much because it was a way to tell about the War and times before it without actually saying "Guess what I did back in the War?" which none of their parents really liked to do.

So after about the third Errol story, there was a very loud crack and Uncle Bill, Aunt Fleur, Aunt Ginny and McKenna's father all appeared on the front lawn. The children all got up and ran to the adults, and Lily, Rose, Albus and Hugo ran out from inside the house.


End file.
